Effective consumer journey - personalizing touchpoints and optimizing conversion for mature-age online MBA prospective students

Theory and research call for advances in customer journey mapping, moving toward more adaptive and customized mapping and incorporating more of the pre - and post- components of the customer journey within the firm. This study contributes to the evolving stream of literature focused on the business education in the digital age and co-creation of value in relation to online business education, reporting on the meaningful elements and touchpoints in the consumer journey of mature-age online MBA prospective students in Australia. Only few studies attempted to map out student journeys reflecting on customer experiences, however, these studies do not address online business education context and explored the perceived value of e-learning without a clear focus on mature-age prospective students interested in the online MBA education. Moreover, while extant literature offers limited empirical evidence on understanding various factors influencing the consumer decision making process in the online learning context; no studies have integrated these factors into student journey relevant for mature-age consumers in Australia. This research address such gap, mapping out consumer journey of prospective MBA students via service pre-experience and pre-purchase stages and identifying relevant factors that may influence the conversion rates of e-tailers.